The revived Cork Harbour Combined Clubs June League has been strongly supported by cruiser racers.

The first race, including whitesail and spinnakers, sailed around Spike Island and in the main harbour.

The results provided by the RCYC (see below) show that the top trio in Whitesail IRC and ECHO were from the RCYC. First was Magnet (Kieran O'Brien and Fiorentina Stanciu); second was Scribbler (Cormac and Tom MacSweeney); third was Big Mc (McGrath Family). In Whitesail ECHO, the winner was Lapwing (Conor Hanlon); second was Big Mc; third was Scribbler.

Spinnakers IRC was won by Nieulargo from the RCYC (Annamarie and Denis Murphy); 2nd Pat Mustard (George Radley Cove SC); 3rd North Star (Fiona Young RCYC). Spinnakers ECHO was also won by Nieulargo, with Pat Mustard second and Legal Alien (Craig O’Neill/RCYC) third.

The RCYC IHS Fleet Race (In-house system) was part of the Friday race. Lapwing won, with Sting Ray (Kieran O’Halloran) second and Clodagh (Rob Foster) third.

The second race in the Combined Harbour League will be this Friday evening with First Gun at 1855.

A 143-year-old, unique wooden boat, the only one of its kind in the world, is heading for the Crosshaven Traditional Sail festival.

Maintaining traditional boats is demanding, and when it’s the only one of its kind in the world, the last of what was once a fleet of a thousand vessels, it is even amazing that it can be actively sailing. But so it is, and it’s on a ‘living heritage’ voyage linking the ancient Celtic lands – Cornwall, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – which will bring it to Crosshaven Traditional Sail from June 14 to 16.

It is the double-ended dipping lugger - ‘Barnabas’- from the Cornish Maritime Trust, a voluntary charity which preserves Cornwall’s maritime heritage. Needing new masts, she sailed from Cornwall to get them from a tree in Scotland, which gave the impetus for the ‘Celtic lands’ voyage.

The Historic Cornish lugger, the 143-year-old mackerel boat, Barnabas, is heading for the 2024 Crosshaven Traditional Sail Festival

Tristan Hugh-Jones, a member of the Trust whose family is developing native oysters at Rossmore in the north channel of Cork Harbour, told me the story.

Listen to the Podcast below:

You can hear more about this on my monthly Maritime Podcast on all major platforms. Tristan, living now in Cornwall, told me about ‘Barnabas’:

Cunard Line's mega-ship Queen Anne came into Cork Harbour at dawn this morning and dwarfed everything, starting with Roche's Point. But then she's 1,058ft in length, and - perhaps more impressively - 116ft beam,
clocking in at 113,000 tonnes. She is much more than a floating village, in that many villages and small towns would lack the variety of facilities on board, starting with restaurants for every taste. You can see why not all passengers feel the need to come ashore at every opportunity - they've barely sampled the ship's extensive range of consumer choices when the voyage is complete.

Some 200 craft will participate in the 28 km-long Ocean to City or "An Rás Mór" event in Cork harbour on June 8th.

Organisers Meitheal Mara have appealed for volunteers for the event, with a variety of roles available including stewarding, shore safety and shore assistance.

Initiated in 2005 as a race for traditional fixed-seat boats, An Rás Mór embraces every type of craft from traditional wooden working boats, currachs, skiffs, gigs and longboats to contemporary ocean racing shells.

Kayaks, canoes and even stand-up paddle boards are also involved.

Traditional craft such as currachs are racing, but kayaks, canoes and even stand-up paddle boards are also involved in the Ocean To City Race

Nearly 500 participants have entered, with crews from Scotland, Wales, England, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Germany and North America.

Participants will race over one of our four course distances: the 28km Ocean Course, 22km City Course, 13km Monkstown Course and the 4km Youth Course – all finishing to a promised warm welcome in Cork’s city centre at Lapp’s Quay.

Spectators can catch the race at various vantage points along the course including the promenade at Cobh, where there will be live commentary and more, Blackrock pier, the banks of the river Lee and the finish line at Lapp’s Quay.

“Over 300 volunteers are needed to deliver what is Cork Harbour’s largest annual event in a variety of roles,” Meitheal Mara says.

“Volunteers can be part of the buzz at the finish line in Cork city as a steward, or they can join the shore-safety teams along Cork harbour,”it says.

“People are also needed to help 100 tired paddlers by giving them a hand lifting their kayaks and boats out of the water at the finish line, and to assist with finish line setup as part of the event’s production team,”it says.

Jacob Ziemkiewicz from Poland, who says he was “born to sail,” and whose plan to build his own boat of plywood construction to compete in the Mini Globe Race we reported on Afloat.ie last June, has launched and is sea-trialling Bibi in Cork Harbour.

She is part of the Globe 5.8 Class, has a 2.2 metres beam, 1.2 metres headroom and had to be built to a strict one-design. The amount of equipment that can be carried is also controlled.

He outlined the course of the race, starting at Lagos, Portugal, in December, to cruiser section members of the Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven after the boat had been launched with the help of the local community at Aghada pier and pontoon on the eastern side of Cork Harbour. The 50-year-old Polish sailor, resident in Ireland for several years, built the boat there.

“We have a wonderful, hand-built in Aghada boat, which is preparing to travel the world,” the Lower Aghada Pier Community Association declared at the launching ceremony. “I’ve got great support and encouragement from the local community,” says Jakub.

The people of Aghada will be eagerly following him during the race which is to take in port p stops in Panama and at Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, Darwin, Mauritius, Durban, Capetown, St.Helena, Recife and finishing back in Antigua, after 5,900 nautical miles. It costs €1,200 to enter the race which is limited to twenty international competitors.

The Aghada county of Cork Harbour turned out to cheer Jacob Ziemkiewicz from Poland on the launch of his mini yacht 'Bibi' for the Mini Globe Race

Don McIntyre is the founder and Race Chairman of the Golden Globe Race, Ocean Globe Race and the Mini Globe Race. The ‘Mini Globe Race’ is described as the first solo around-the-world race for mini, one-designs.

Here’s a chance for teenagers in Cork with an interest in life at sea to give it a go on board and experience a replica of a 19th-century sailing tall ship.

As CorkBeo writes, the youth sailing charity Sail Training Ireland is looking for those aged between 14 and 17 to take part in a 'training voyage' aboard the 91-foot Spirit of Falmouth between Monday, July 1, and Friday, July 5.

A second similar training voyage for adults aged between 18 and 30 is also to take place for the following week between Monday, July 8, and Friday, July 12.

Both of the voyages will be departing and returning to Cork Harbour.

The trainee sailors on the voyage will take the 1985-built timber-constructed ‘Spirit’ along the south coast to get to grips with life on the open sea. The vessel is based on the design of a traditional Mersey pilot schooner built using traditional methods in Liverpool.

The 88-ton schooner has a core crew of six with the capacity to carry 12 trainee passage crew, according to its operator, Turn to Starboard, based in the schooner’s homeport of Falmouth, Cornwall.

The voyages say Sail Training Ireland is designed to get "young people undertaking voyages on tall ships, effectively as part of the working crew."

Successful applicants will be able to undertake several tasks, including setting the sails, navigation, and climbing the rigging and masts. Accommodation is based on 18 bunks and two cabins, along with two ‘heads’ (toilets) and a purpose-built galley and saloon.

The schooner has the capacity for 12 trainees, and the fee for both the teen and adult voyages is €280.

A Cork Harbour houseboat resident has told of his shock at seeing a “tornado” whipping towards him on Tuesday afternoon (21 May).

As Echo Live reports, Gavin Higgins was watching TV below deck on his converted classic RNLI lifeboat in Drake’s Pool when he was drawn to his cabin by a loud boom.

“It was a lovely day and I thought it was thunder, but I came up into my cabin and I saw this tornado making its way toward me,” Higgins says.

Video shot by passers-by shows the waterspout — the term for a whirlwind that forms over a body of water — whipping across the normally tranquil anchorage.

Luckily for Higgins, his houseboat the Lilly Wainright was unscathed in the incident.

“I always wanted to retire to Crosshaven and now I have,” the Doncaster native added. “I’m at home here, although I don’t know why God sent a tornado after me!”

Ireland is not known for such extreme weather events, but last December a tornado dealt significant damage to a number of moored motor cruisers in Co Leitrim, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

After a break since the impact of Covid, the Cork Harbour Combined Cruiser League is to be held again.

It will start on Friday, June 5, and be jointly organised by the Royal Cork YC and Cove SC. It is open to both Whitesail and Spinnaker racing and will run for four Fridays in June.

The event is sponsored by Johanna Murphy and Associates.

"It promises to be a fantastic league with the Harbour Clubs working together to deliver great racing for both clubs," says RCYC Rear Admiral Keelboats, Rob Foster.

The overall league prize-giving will be on Friday, June 28, in Cobh.

Sailing Instructions and the Notice of Race are being published on club websites.

On Saturday morning, the Carrigaline Choral Group participated in the annual Darkness into Light national fundraiser with the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Up to 30 pleasure crafts sailed out into Cork Harbour before sunrise to support the charity Pieta, which raises awareness about suicide and provides support to those suffering from suicidal ideation, self-harm, or those bereaved by suicide.

A flotilla of up to 30 boats headed out into a misty Cork Harbour for the annual Darkness into Light national fundraiser with the Royal Cork Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

The flotilla was led by Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Annamarie Fegan. The Carrigaline Choral Group was onboard the RCYC's Committee boat, Gem, and was accompanied by the Crosshaven RNLI inshore lifeboat.

The  Darkness into Light flotilla of boats included the Crosshaven RNLI inshore lifeboat Photo: Bob Bateman

Although there was a foggy start to the proceedings, the boats set off from Crosshaven in a parade and headed for the entrance to Cork Harbour just off Roches Point.

Royal Cork Yacht Club Committee Boat Gem, skippered by marina manager Mark Ring underneath Roches Point at sunrise for the Darkness into Light charity appeal  Photo: Bob Bateman

At 5:45 a.m., just after sunrise, Admiral Fegan raised the club pennant to honour the Darkness into Light charity appeal, and the choir, led by honorary choral secretary Mary Malone, sang in the misty morning. 

Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Annamarie Fegan raises the club pennant to honour the Darkness into Light charity appeal Photo: Bob Bateman

Carrigaline Choral Group perform at sunrise off Roches Point in Cork Harbour as part of the Royal Cork Yacht Club's support of the annual Darkness into Light national fundraiser Photo: Bob Bateman

After the event, the fleet returned to the clubhouse for tea, coffee, and croissants.

Pieta was founded in Dublin in 2006 to provide free, accessible one-to-one counselling to people in need.

Royal Cork Yacht Club's 2024 'Darkness into Light' Fundraiser in aid of Pieta House Photo Gallery by Bob Bateman

One of Cork Harbour’s most notorious islands, Spike, is the subject of a new book published this week.

“Spike Island—the Rebels, Residents, and Crafty Criminals of Ireland’s Historic Island” was written by John Crotty and will be launched by Cork’s deputy mayor, Dr Colette Finn, on Tuesday (April 30).

The book charts how, over its 1300-year history, the island was once a monastic outpost in the Celtic Sea, a fortress built to defend an Empire, and, latterly, a prison established to intern a nation.

The island has garnered international attention many times, such as the famine-era prison overcrowding and inhumane conditions, the triumphant 1938 handover of the island from Britain to Ireland, and the violent prison riot in 1985.

Spike Island's Mitchel Hall Photo: Skytec

Located in the centre of Cork Harbour, Spike housed rebels like John Mitchel, who would inspire the 1916 generation, and 1200 Republicans during the War of Independence.

More recent arrivals include the notorious crime boss, Martin Cahill, known as “The General”, who terrorised 1980’s Ireland.

The book’s author, John Crotty, hails from Co Waterford and spent 11 years living in Britain, where he graduated from Swansea University.

An aerial view of Spike Island in Cork Harbour  Photo: Skytec

On his return, John managed Spike Island Cork as CEO for six years, leading the island to international awards.

Under his stewardship, the island launched its popular “After Dark” tours and the first Spike Island Literary Festival.

Spike Island's 1850s punishment block Photo: Simon Hill

“No other place better encapsulates the Irish story,” the book’s publishers, Merrion Press, state. Crotty’s history is told in “an entertaining and accessible chronological style featuring accounts from island dwellers and the interned alike.”

Spike Island - the Rebels,Residents and Crafty Criminals of Ireland’s Historic Island by John Crotty is available in paperback at €18.99 (£17.99) from Merrion Press.

It will be launched with Cork deputy mayor Finn in Waterstone’s, St Patrick’s Street, Cork, on Tuesday, April 30th, at 6.30 pm.

The book’s author, John Crotty, hails from Co Waterford and spent 11 years living in Britain, where he graduated from Swansea University.